Wesley website gives patients online access to health records

Wesley Medical Center is now offering a website patients can use to view their electronic health records securely.

Patients will be able to see records concerning their allergies, conditions, discharge summaries, hospital visit histories, lab results, medications, medication instructions, radiology reports and upcoming appointments, according to a news release.

“We believe it is incredibly powerful for patients to have immediate access to their health information,” said Wesley CFO Matt Leary. “They’ve got to be active partners in their health care.”

The portal will also help the hospital be compliant with increased Medicare requirements linked to reimbursements, Leary said.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have established what it calls “meaningful use,” a set of standards hospitals and providers can use to earn incentives if they meet the criteria, including the integration of electronic health records.

The hospital is investing more than $1 million into the patient portal and electronic health record technologies, Leary said. The government incentive is also more than $1 million.

To meet the requirements, the hospital needs at least 5 percent of patients to give them e-mail addresses and go through the process of creating accounts, logging in and accessing health records.

Currently, the portal does not connect to other electronic health record systems, Leary said.

“The whole process of meaningful use is a journey, and unfortunately there’s yet to be something that can lay over every single medical record program and allow them to talk to each other,” Leary said.